


Tanabata

by marginalcost (orphan_account)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-11-22
Packaged: 2018-02-26 15:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2656358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/marginalcost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He has only wished for one thing these past years, but it isn't her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tanabata

Naruto always waits until it’s near midnight to write his wish.

As he approaches the bamboo, he can’t help but remember what had happened when he had set out to do this the year he had married. Hinata had been so worried, hounding him with questions he had no answers for and insecurities he hadn’t been completely capable of allaying. He remembers her pale eyes brimming with the words she could not bring herself to say, and he chuckles, earning him stares from people passing by him. It’s absurd, really. Leave her and the children now for something hopelessly out of his reach - he could never do it.

Naruto takes the last spare piece of tanzaku, while glancing at the others attached to the bamboo. Most of them have poetry, others are sentences long. They’re all earnest, simple and don’t ask for much - he wonders if what he’s asking for isn’t that difficult either.

He’s wished for the same thing for years. No, he has never been and never will be good with words, so he doesn’t spend minutes standing there wondering which verses sound best when rhymed. He doesn’t want to think of adding sentences either, if he did, they would never fit on paper, and the gods, let alone Tentei, did not need excuses. No, he only writes two words.

Naruto waits for the ink to dry, then hangs the tanzaku on the bamboo. But he doesn’t leave just yet. He also waits until people take the bamboo away and he follows them from a distance, careful to mask his chakra. He watches as the bamboo, along with many others, get loaded onto unmanned boats and are set afloat. He waits until the people leave and the boats are out of sight. That is when he starts heading back home, but not before pausing in front of the Uchiha residence.

After long weeks of being left on, the lights are finally off - Sasuke must be back. He thinks of what he had written on the tanzaku.

Sakura-chan’s happiness.

He smiles.

_I hope you’re still happy, Sakura-chan._


End file.
